Students of karma capitalism

US business schools are lining up for courses that will help tomorrows executives find their inner peace. Dean Nelson reports from New Delhi

THE young executives — among America’s brightest and best — cast off their shoes and sat cross-legged at the feet of a tall 80-year-old man dressed in flowing white robes.

Like disciples in the presence of a prophet, they hung on his every word. And they stared with concentration as their teacher wrote on a white flip-board the bywords to business success: concentration, consistency, co-operation.

For the members of the Young Presidents’ Association, meeting in New Jersey, this was no ordinary leadership seminar. They were being imbued with the values of the Hindu philosophy of Vedanta, by its most venerable proponent, Swami Parthasarathy.

It was only one example of how America’s business schools and corporations are turning to the teachings of Hindu gurus and the wisdom of Lord Krishna for guidance for their budding hedge-fund managers, investment bankers and venture capitalists.